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Notes about this book

A comprehensive survey of Spanish cooking, with Roden's usual care and thoroughness. Not only do you get the recipe, but you get its history, and in the case of Spain that can be very rich and complex! Many modern Spanish dishes trace their roots back hundreds of years to the time before the expulsions of the Jews and the Moors in 1492. A fascinating read, as well as a wonderful cookbook!

Notes about Recipes in this book

Great way for dressing up simply grilled vegetables ( I served this with yellow squash)- the hard boiled egg adds a nice richness. I made the version that used a combination of sherry vinegar and Pedro Ximinez sweet wine as the acid. I also realized at the last minute that I didn't actually have any parsley on hand, so I used about a tablespoon of tarragon instead- kind of in line with another variation anyway.

I've been making this regularly since summer tomatoes became available; excellent with all greens, particularly bitter or peppery lettuces, but is equally good with steamed vegetables like green beans. Flavour improves after a few hours at room temperature.

A classic recipe for romesco sauce (which my husband made not as classic by adding tablespoons instead of teaspoons of vinegar-whoops, but it still worked). We used this as a sauce for simply broiled fish, but it will go well with most vegetables as well. (I think it would be lovely with kale.) I used the pimenton de la vera option since I didn't have the correct type of dried peppers.

So simple it doesn't even need a recipe- toast a coarse country bread, rub tomato on top of the toast until the juice permeates it, and garnish with a bit of olive oil. Endless variations are possible with this dish, and I'll be thinking about this during the winter when there aren't fresh tomatoes anymore.

Sometimes the simplest recipes can be the most satisfying. I served this as part of a tapas meal instead of the more traditional Spanish breakfast. I also rubbed the bread with raw garlic (before the tomato), which makes it spicy but oh so good!

We made this a while back and forgot to write my review. It was quite delicious, not quite what I had in spain but good. I took TrishaCP advice about no black pepper and did not add any I also don't remember black pepper flakes in gazpacho.

No twist to anything, just a very traditional gazpacho recipe, which is one of my favorite things in the world when the tomatoes are perfectly in season. Traditional for the most part, but one thing to mention- the recipe calls for salt and pepper to taste. I showed this to a Spanish friend when she was visiting (she is from Cordoba), and she was horrified that anyone would think to put black pepper in gazpacho! So I didn't- and honestly, I think she is right- I got enough kick from the bell pepper.

My wife described this as spring in a bowl. I'd consider running the soup through a food mill instead of using an immersion blender next time. The soup was only very slightly thickened from the pureed vegetables.

Not quite sure what I did wrong here because even with what seemed a mountain of salt and pepper being added and another squeeze of lemon juice this was lacking in flavour, especially lacking in pumpkin flavour.

There are apparently several tricks to making this successfully: stewing the potatoes and onions was one I learned to do and that resulted in incredibly creamy potatoes that remarkably still held their shape and sweet onions that melted into the omelette. It's a step that took extra time but was worth it for the end result.

I found the recipe in the Wall Street Journal this weekend (7/7/12), then later realized it came from this book, which I don't own. This was really good. Plus, everyone one in my family who came near the kitchen while this was cooking commented about how good the kitchen smelled. I made this with Italian canned tuna (not Chicken of the Sea). Interesting technique with the dough, which is made from white wine, olive oil, flour, baking soda, and egg. It makes a dough that is really easy to work with, and also quite sturdy (perhaps even a bit tough). But I'll make this again. It is also adaptable to different kinds of fillings.

These were a big hit and not too difficult to make. The filling was boldly flavoured and the dough was quite forgiving and easy to work with as long as you allowed a few minutes rest when it became too elastic. I loved that they were baked, not fried.

Loved these flavour-packed morsels! The dough was nice and forgiving from all of the olive oil. It needed a thorough working to bend to my will, but after cutting (3'' round) I used the dowel that I keep for dumpling wrappers to re-stretch when it shrank. Kept some of the tasty filling aside without tuna for a vegetarian; that was equally delicious. With my smaller cutter and a reserved amount of filling, I reaped about 50 emanadillas. I imagine that this would also be wonderful with chorizo in place of tuna.

My family really enjoyed these empanadillas. The dough is a bit tricky: it is very oily (I let it sit for a couple of hours at room temperature and it oozed olive oil). It also does NOT like to be re-rolled right away. Knead the scraps together and then let it sit for awhile to soften back up. It is very stretchy, so can be manipulated around the filling and sealed fairly easily. I got 24 empanadillas from this recipe using a 3 3/4" round cookie cutter.

This is a very nice treatment for mixed vegetables. I did the vegetables as written, dropping them into boiling water in stages. First potatoes and leeks, then artichokes, then asparagus. But I had to fetch out the potatoes as they were fully cooked when the leeks were still too firm. With the potatoes pulled early, everything came out fine.
The basic dressing is made up of olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, chopped tomatoes, and a chopped hard boiled egg. I made the variation, which also includes chopped red onion, capers, and chopped olives. My one further (unauthorized) variation was to add a crushed clove of garlic. This vinagreta is poured over the warm vegetables and they are tossed to absorb the flavors.
This is a colorful and tasty vegetable dish. The hard boiled egg adds an extra dimension to the dressing (and I don't even like hard boiled egg). I made extra dressing just to put on a salad or roasted potatoes, I might even add an anchovy or two.

A friend of mine taught me this basic side dish many moons ago. I usually cube my onion and zucchini, however. I have never seen it in a cookbook until now! I picked the oregano from my garden, but the flavor was not really detectable in the finished dish--maybe add a bit more?!? Also, the zucchini flavor needed some enhancing with a bit of acid at the end. I used sherry vinegar, as I thought it fitting for a Spanish dish.

This was Delicious. I usually don't boil vegetables preferring to steam them instead to retain all their nutrition. In this case, for this recipe it just made sense to follow the directions. The vegetables are cooked at staggered times so there was a hefty amount of nutrients in that water. If I had been thinking ahead I would have saved the cooking water that wasn't used for the sauce. It could have been used as a soup base or another sauce.

This was a different combination of ingredients for us and we quite liked how they all came together to create a tasty and satisfying finished dish. Fava beans are used in Catalonia as a matter of course but here Roden gives us her peas variation. As she says, "it's delightful." I didn't make any changes to the recipe but did take advantage of her options: prosciutto rather than Serrano ham, grappa instead of brandy, dried herbs instead of fresh, and frozen vegetables not fresh. Using these alternatives gave me a chance to create a lovely meal with pantry ingredients on a very busy night.

Using frozen vegetables, this came together quite easily. As I was trying use ingredients on hand, I substituted pancetta for the serrano ham. I did use brandy, and I used homemade duck stock for the broth; I thought it would tie into our ducky main course. This was a nice side, I don't think anyone was ecstatic or anything, but it was good. It could be played with too. I have some frozen limas leftover from another dish, and I think I'll cook them up and combine them with the leftovers from this dish.

p. 270 - I love pickled or marinated mushrooms so a lemony version sounded really delicious and I was keen to try this recipe. A relatively simple prep. Mushrooms are cleaned and quartered then cooked in a dry skillet over medium heat to render their juices. Still hot, the mushrooms are then tossed into a bowl and covered with the marinade of evoo, salt, pepper, lemon zest & juice. CR suggests you marinade for at least 5 hours and advises that they’ll keep, covered in the fridge for many days. The plated dish is sprinkled with chopped parsley.
This is a great example of how a few good ingredients can produce a dish far greater than the sum of its parts. The mushrooms were lovely with just the right amount of fresh, lemon flavour without any of the bitterness you might expect from a marinade with so much lemon in the mix. My only regret was that I didn’t make a double batch. I can’t wait to serve these as part of an outdoor tapas menu when it warms up a little more outside.

This was a fine but not too exciting side dish. I disagree that the raisins and pine nuts don't add anything to the recipe though- I thought the raisins added some depth and complexity and pine nuts a welcome crunch.

p. 295
This produced a hearty, tasty dish. We especially enjoyed the almost chewy texture of the filling. This eggplant is definitely ideal as a main dish since it is quite satisfying. I would like to try these with a little of the Moro Tahini sauce drizzled atop, I bet that would be great!
Note: CR instructs you to remove their centres using a pointy spoon. Well, though I do have a few pointy spoons in my kitchen, none were up to this task. The eggplant was simply too spongy and fibrous for my spoons. In the end I used a paring knife to cut through the flesh and then scooped it out w a spoon and coarsely chopped.

Pg. 303...
This is a terrific tapa and probably the quickest recipe I've ever cooked. I served the shrimp with the garlic and sauce on a grilled slice of Portuguese Saloio bread. Absolutely delicious. The main dish was Braised Peas and Artichokes on page 264. Great meal.

p. 304
I compared this to several other recipes in my Spanish books and this won out based on its ease of preparation and, good reviews online. The canned beans are a huge time saver and the recipe still produces a flavourful broth. I made as set out in the book but did add about 1/2 cup of diced fennel since I had it on hand and it seemed to suit the other flavours in this dish. As you’ll see from my photos, I didn’t have any parsley on hand so I garnished with some chopped chives. Next time around I’d hold off adding any salt to my mix until after the clams have cooked as my broth was a little brinier than I expected. Delicious. Lots of clams for me and lots of beans for mr bc. We arm-wrestled for the broth!! Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/846989#7365508

Delicious and the fish keep for a few days -- maybe longer but they've never stayed in my fridge longer. Cleaning the fish takes a few minutes but once done it all comes together fairly quickly. I have re-used the pickling marinade for additional picklings. Have thought about freezing it and seeing what happens upon defrosting...

Using skinless mahimahi, I wasn't able to truly test the cooking technique in the recipe, but I can attest to the deliciousness of the chile-garlic dressing on both the fish and the accompanying boiled potatoes (a recommended side). I used the outdoor grill to cook the fish and made the dressing simultaneously in a small pan on the side burner.

I used mahi mahi and this was just a bit too plain. The olive oil didn't really pick up any of the flavors from the garlic or chile. I used a fresh Fresno chile and the flavor of the chile was the best part of this.

Pg. 320
This was delicious. Plain and simple. A hot skillet on the stovetop was the "grilling" method. I reversed the cooking order because it just made sense to me: Instead of cooking the fish first I made the sauce before the fish was cooked otherwise the fish would have cooled while the sauce was being made...
Monkfish is the fish she uses for the recipe but gives many alternatives so I chose haddock fillets, with skin left on. Usually I would expect this to be served with lemon wedges but this didn't seem to need anything else, not even pepper. We loved the delicate garlic flavor with the super fresh fish.

A good solid dish for a weeknight that comes together fairly quickly. Salmon fillet is poached in a broth of onion, garlic, tomatoes, fish stock, brandy, and chile pepper (I subbed a chile de arbol). I didn't blend the sauce, but would recommend doing so if you want to make it less rustic. Not the most memorable recipe from this book, but not a bad meal either.

A really simple and delicious fish dish- I used striped bass rather than monkfish. Fish is browned in olive oil, and then simmered in a broth of water, tomato paste, garlic and brandy. Other than the fact that I couldn't get the brandy to flame per the recipe, this was a great success that I will make again.

Excellent. I made it with chicken thighs, skin on. After browning the chicken and making the sauce, I put in a casserole dish and baked in the oven. Also, thicken the sauce a little with a couple tablespoons of flour.

I've made recipes similar to this before, all of which were delicious, but I decided to make it with dry sherry in place of the wine. It was like an entirely new dish, and one I will be repeating. A new family favourite.

This dish has flavor well beyond the sum of its parts. Truly stunning how few ingredients taste so good. Only rated 4 stars because I needed to cook the lamb one hour longer than the recipe indicated to get it tender. I added my peppers (used jarred piquillo since I had them on hand) about half-way through cooking. Simply cooked polenta was a great accompaniment.

Delicious and very forgiving on the time. It ended up on the stove for over 3 hours yet still emerged glossy, succulent and very tasty. The combination of saffron, honey and the marinade made a nice change to roasting a leg with rosemary and garlic. Highly recommended and I will make it again.

Delicious- a perfect match with the wild boar stew from this book. I had pre-cooked chestnuts, and maybe they were drier than fresh, but I had to use significantly more milk than what was called for in order to get an acceptable puree. (Not sure how much, I kept adding while pureeing in the food processor until I got what I wanted.) But once I did- this was amazing!

These meatballs were really delicious and a big hit with the family--the sauce is fantastic. Made a double recipe and, rather than frying the meatballs before putting them in the sauce, I broiled them until browned (saves the splatter). A bit time-consuming for a weeknight, but definitely worth the effort. Served over white rice (seemed like a good match to us), though I imagine they'd also be good with some bread on the side as well. With an arugula/persimmon/pomegranate salad.

I made this dish all in one pan. It probably took a bit longer that way, as each element had to be done in sequence, but I only had one pan to clean! I used pork for the meatballs. While they looked and tasted great, the texture was off for us. I think it might have been because of the bread I used. I had forgotten I needed bread, so I used a chunk of leftover ciabatta for the picada, and a rather mooshy hamburger bun for the meatballs. Since the meatballs were a bit too squishy for us, I attribute that to the bread. Loved the sauce, however. I used duck stock, otherwise as written. My sauce became very think in the prescribed cooking time, and I did add a bit of water. I didn't serve them with bread or noodles, and didn't miss them. I'd love to try this sauce on other meats also. Actually, it would be good on most anything!

A delicious meal and flavour combination. I left the meatball mixture in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up before rolling. I also oven baked the meatballs rather than frying them before adding to the delicious picada. I served this with linguine.

Stew is a misnomer- this is really a braised meat dish with more braising liquid than normal. (In other words, you will want side dishes with this one- it isn't a complete meal on its own.) Still the flavors were lovely- I loved the cinnamon here. The chestnut puree is a perfect match.

Great simple oxtail dish. I agree with the Spaniards - use the immersion blender and puree the veg mixture. (Roden is so thorough - she notes that method is the Spanish way, though she herself does not prefer it.) I did notice that the oxtails took a LONG time to break down. We were in hour 3 of cooking before the meat started to be shreddable. The technique of trimming the fat and roasting first also dealt very nicely with the problem of excess fat rendered into the stew.

p. 430
Simple and good. A little plain tasting and I do think the potatoes would benefit from some garlic aioli on the side or perhaps a smoky tomato or sweet red pepper sauce. I’ll do that next time but for tonight we had these potatoes straight-up. While I did think the roasting time seemed a little long for par-boiled potatoes I went along with these instructions checking to see the potatoes were no worse for the wear when I turned them throughout the roasting process. These reminded us of large French fries! They had a crispy crust on the outside and were very fluffy on the inside. Texturally, they were outstanding. I just thought they were a little one note for our tastes. Next time, I’ll be sure to use a flavourful, quality olive oil and as noted above, I’ll serve a sauce or aioli alongside for dipping. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/846989#7330421

Pg. 432...
I found it to be, as the header notes state, intensely flavored. The recipe is quite simple and very easy to bring together. I did like the flavor but found it almost too heavy and filling. The chorizo was just too much for me.

Made a hybrid of this & another recipe here. Used chicken thighs, chorizo & clams (no rabbit or snails). Green beans were a colorful ingredient, but I had to have red pepper too. Incorporated white wine & a jar of clam broth as part of the liquid. I always underestimate the time it takes to make a paella, but it's worth it.

This was pretty good but didn't really pick up the flavor or color from the paprika or saffron. I had some trouble getting the top of the rice and shrimp to cook so I covered it with aluminum foil for the last 5 minutes. I don't think that the clams added much to the paella so would consider omitting them in the future.

Very rich and hearty with every noodle infused with the delicious flavours of the cooking liquid since the pasta is cooked like rice via the absorption method. I used a tagine and cooked the meat in it first so the browned bits added an extra layer of flavour. I substituted pork tenderloin for pork chops.

Publishers Text

In The Food of Spain, Claudia Roden, the James Beard award-winning author of the classics A Book of Middle Eastern Food and The Book of Jewish Food, and one of our foremost authorities on Mediterranean, North African, and Italian cooking, brings her incomparable authenticity, vision, and immense knowledge to bear in this cookbook on the cuisines of Spain.

New York Times bestselling cookbook author Claudia Roden believes that through food a cook can reconstruct an entire world. And in her classic A Book of Middle Eastern Food–eight hundred recipes long, a treasure trove of folk tales, proverbs, stories, poetry, and local history–that's just what she did. Historian and critic Simon Schama has said of her that "Claudia Roden is no more a simple cookbook writer than Marcel Proust was a biscuit baker." The Book of Jewish Food, another classic, is equally magnificent in its span, a cookbook that is also a history of Jewish life and settlement, told through the story of what Jews ate, and where, and why, and how they made it.

Now, in The Food of Spain, Claudia Roden applies that same remarkable insight, scope, and authority to a cuisine marked by its regionalism and suffused with an unusually particular culinary history. In hundreds of exquisite recipes, Roden explores both the little known and the classic dishes of Spain–from Andalusia to Asturias, from Catalonia to Galicia. And whether she's writing about smoky, nutty Catalan Romesco sauce, Cordero a la Miel–sweet and hot tender lamb stew with honey–or the iconic, emblematic national dish of Spain, saffron-perfumed Paella Valenciana, her clear, elegant, humorous, and passionate voice is a reader's delight, a guide not only to delicious food but to the peoples and cultures that produced it.

Both comprehensive and timeless, The Food of Spain is one of the most important books on this tremendous cuisine to appear in the last fifty years. A classic in the making, it is an essential work not only for fans of Spanish and Mediterranean food but for every serious cook as well as discerning armchair travelers.